Being woefully unprepared for entirely predictable risks despite a multi billion pound defence budget or flexibly responding to unforeseen requirements in a slick and efficient manner are the two faces of the Urgent Operational Requirement system.
How much the next operation will be supported by the Treasury funelling cash into the MoD, how many of the known full well capability gaps that the MoD hope will be filled by future UOR’s and how much the system as a whole continues to evolve, one thing is for certain, a lot of money has been spent.
Angus Robertson (Moray, Scottish National Party)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much has been spent on Urgent Operational Requirements by (a) theatre and (b) equipment type in each of the last 10 years; and which such funding was provided from a Treasury budget.
Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 20 December 2012, c901W)
Philip Dunne (Ludlow, Conservative)
The required information is not held in the format requested prior to financial year 2008-09. The amount spent on Urgent Operational Requirements (UOR) and claimed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) against the HM Treasury Reserve, since financial year 2008-09 is presented in the following table.
| £ million | ||||
| Theatre | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 |
| Afghanistan | 838 | 774 | 794 | 415 |
| Iraq | 223 | 45 | -3 | 0 |
| Total operations and peace-keeping UOR spend | 1,061 | 819 | 791 | 415 |
| £ million | |||||
| Equipment type | Theatre | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 |
| Helicopter (Ground Attack, Tactile Transport—Aircraft and aircrew protection) | Afghanistan | 95 | 133 | 95 | 46 |
| Iraq | 33 | 7 | 2 | 0 | |
| Total | 128 | 140 | 97 | 46 | |
| Aircraft (Ground Attack, Strategic and Tactile Transport—Aircraft and aircrew protection) | Afghanistan | 72 | 48 | 12 | 21 |
| Iraq | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 83 | 49 | 12 | 21 | |
| Soldier equipment (protection, clothing, combat equipment) | Afghanistan | 62 | 73 | 52 | 13 |
| Iraq | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 72 | 78 | 52 | 13 | |
| Communications (voice and data transfer) | Afghanistan | 0 | 26 | 54 | 15 |
| Iraq | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 0 | 27 | 54 | 15 | |
| ISTAR—Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance | Afghanistan | 25 | 69 | 50 | 81 |
| Iraq | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 38 | 69 | 50 | 81 | |
| Ground manoeuvre (protected mobility) | Afghanistan | 436 | 252 | 351 | 78 |
| Iraq | 87 | 5 | -1 | 0 | |
| Total | 523 | 257 | 350 | 78 | |
| Fire power (guns, missiles and rockets) | Afghanistan | 4 | 11 | 28 | 3 |
| Iraq | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 9 | 12 | 28 | 3 | |
| Protection (C-IED/military working dogs, soldier protection (ECM)) | Afghanistan | 68 | 90 | 79 | 99 |
| Iraq | 20 | 17 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 88 | 107 | 79 | 99 | |
| Sustainment (medical, battlefield utilities) | Afghanistan | 0 | 9 | 8 | 11 |
| Iraq | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 1 | 9 | 8 | II | |
| Unmanned aerial vehicles | Afghanistan | 44 | 25 | 11 | 1 |
| Iraq | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 61 | 26 | II | 1 | |
| Information management/Information exploitation | Afghanistan | 31 | 36 | 54 | 48 |
| Iraq | 25 | 5 | -3 | 0 | |
| Total | 55 | 41 | 50 | 48 | |
| Maritime (ship electronic warfare) | Iraq | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Total operations and peace-keeping UOR spend | 1,061 | 819 | 791 | 415 | |
| Notes: 1. All figures rounded to nearest £ million. 2. The negative figures presented against Iraq in financial year 2010-11 relate to the final reconciliation of project accounts. | |||||
What I find more troubling is the fact that the MoD is unable to account for the numbers before 2008/09
Relatively small amounts for firepower considering we were fighting the Taliban.
I’m more curious about how did they come up with negative numbers for some of the years. Taken into core? Sold as surplus? Very creative accounting/black marketing?
@ Observer,
It says at the bottom in the notes that the minuses caim from reconciling accounts.
“Tactile” transport aircraft ?!?
@mike w
I was wondering that, I know we live in a touchy feely world these days, but that is just weird
Glad to see that ISTAR and information exploitation are pushing through in the, as such, declining numbers. I understand that exactly such projects that can’t be just ordered off-the-shelf, but are multi-year, have suffered in the last ten years of ‘short-termism’